Champions League preview: Atlético vs. AC Milan

Rojiblancos to welcome Milan in vital Euro showdown

Atlético Madrid can reach their first Champions League quarter-final in 17 years on Tuesday evening, as they prepare to take on six time winners AC Milan in front of a packed crowd in the Spanish capital.

The red and whites won narrowly at the San Siro in the first leg to take the driving seat in this last 16 tie, although plenty of work is still to be done against one of the continent’s most decorated sides.

Kick-off in the Vicente Calderón is set for the habitual time of 20:45 CET.

A decade ago, with Milan champions of Europe and Atleti newly promoted in La Liga, you would never have believed the team from Madrid would be widely considered favourites to knock-out their illustrious Italian counterparts in Champions League knock-out tie.

However, a late Diego Costa away goal three weeks back means that is exactly the situation on Tuesday evening, and the Spanish international will be hungry for more having been shut out by Italy in his International debut recently.

Suspended for Saturday’s vital 2-0 win at Celta Vigo, Costa will return to lead the line against the Rossoneri, but competition for places behind the big frontman is really hotting up and could cause a real selection headache.

Raúl García got the nod in the San Siro and also in last week’s derby, although David Villa‘s ruthless weekend brace will make him hard to leave on the bench.

Arda Turan is available too following his ban, but will have our two January signings to contend with, Diego Ribas and José Sosa, who both looked sharp and extremely eager in Balaídos to impress and win a starting place.

Veteran midfieder Tiago, a fixture in the team up until injury last month, is also back with the squad, meaning our only injury absentee at this crucial stage in the campaign is teenage right-back Javi Manquillo.

In his press conference on Monday, Simeone highlighted the importance of the midfield battle and warned against the strengths of Milan, underlining the threat they can pose.

“For a good match, we must be strong in midfield,” he stressed. “In games as defining as these, Milan are especially dangerous. They are used to being in this competition given their history, regardless of their league position.”

“I expect the best Milan tomorrow and I’m sure it will be a hard and challenging match, the stakes are very high for either side.”

The Argentine head coach also praised his side, addressing the form of some of his attacking weapons in particular.

“The match in Vigo showed that the team is ready to tackle big matches,” he said. “What makes me very happy is Diego´s growth, the entry of Sosa and all the goals from David Villa. All this helps us grow as a team and makes us more prepared for all the important situations that will come.”

Our opponents may be out of sorts – mid-table in Serie A and 20 points away from next year’s Champions League spots – but despite everything that has gone by this season, they would still be a major scalp and have more than enough talent to continue in pursuit of their most beloved title beyond this round.

Manager Clarence Seedorf has more than enough experience having won the competition four times with three different clubs, but is still finding his feet in management having only taken over in January. The ex-Real Madrid man challenged his side to make the most of their opportunity in the Calderón.

“I expect an open match. It’s true that Atlético have the advantage, but we will seek to strengthen our attacking play and take our chances in front of goal,” he told press.

“This type of match generates much enthusiasm and we feel prepared, the team is excited and can hopefully write a new chapter in Milan’s history.”

“The important thing is to respect the rival as well as respect and honour our history. We are prepared.” he finished.

Seedorf’s men responded well initially to defeat in the first leg by winning at Sampdoria, but were since beaten comprehensively by Juventus a week later, before going down again on Saturday to a struggling Udinese.

Nevertheless, their weakened line-up suggested that eyes are firmly on tomorrow, as star man Mario Balotelli was given a run-out in the second half following injury.

The controversial striker’s return will be a huge boost to the 2,000 Milan fans supposedly making the trip, with Sulley Muntari, outspoken in his view that Atleti were the weakest side in the draw last December, also back in the squad.

Christian Abbiati will be returning to Vicente Calderón, and another familiar face, Robinho, could also play having returned to full fitness.

Captain Riccardo Montolivo is still missing through suspension though, meaning home fans will not get a chance to get a look at one of the names we seem to be linked with every transfer window.

Should the Rojiblancos make it through, the quarter-final draw takes place in Nyom on March 21st, with ties on 1/2 and 8/9 April.

Vamos Atleti!!! Expecting a great match! Hope we will destroy Milan! Muntari hope you will play!

kris

Very important match. Vital for this season and next season to show that we are growing as a team and can attract big name players to our team, having being able to keep the ones we already have right now. This may be asking for too much, but if we can get to the semi-finals of the Champions League and win the La Liga this season, our season will be really successful, generating LOTS of money and getting more viewers. Might be the end of the unfair television rights of the “duopoly”, who knows? And, our club will be the one to be able to achieve that feat. This is simply amazing, come to think of it! We believe in you Cholo, and your men on the pitch! Let’s win this match, and give what the forever-patient fans have been waiting for, for such a long time! Aupa Atleti!

farhan

calm down guys we are going to win

Ahmad Hossainy

Since Celta Vigo game at home back in October 2013, Simeone didn’t start with his perfect 11 due to injuries and suspension
I’m talking about this line-up :
Courtois
Juanfran – Godin – Miranda – Filipe
Gabi – Mario
Arda – Koke
Villa – Costa

Tonight, they are all available .. but yet, I think there is a good chance that he will not start with all of them
In the champions league, El Cholo did not depend on Villa very much, El Guaje played only 180 minutes in 3 games, a bit confusing giving that he is the most experienced player in our team at this competition (with 47 games) and the only one who have won its title
but it worked very well until now, 6 wins and a draw in 7 games

It still a very difficult game despite the 1-0 advantage .. we need to score first and to score early, otherwise the things could get complicated

Happy Birthday Billy .. a little late, but this is your first post since
beside I was one of the firsts to say it to you on twitter 🙂

The kid just turned 20 last Sunday .. but if you don’t know him you would think he is much older when you read his posts or his tweets

This is the team I would like to see:
Cortouis
juanfran, Godin, Miranda, Felipe
Koke, gabi, Suarez, Turan
Costa, Villa

I think Simione will play a 4-2-3-1 though, perhaps with Garcia or Diego instead of villa.
I think a midfield 5 of Gabi, Suarez, Turan, diego, Koke could works well. I hope Garcia doesn’t start this game though

farhan

it 12 march and it is my birthday……thank you thank you heheheh….
atleti victory will be the best present for me ….

farhan

its 12 march and it is my birthday……thank you thank you heheheh….
atleti victory will be the best present for me ….

OMG ….RG8 so close to score the best goal ever! 🙂
Our supporters are awesome.
Aupa Atleti.

piserakos

Guys cause at my pub the changed game and putted bayer arsenal i only watched first 20 minutes… Can anyone analyse the others?

Ahmad Hossainy

after he picked up a yellow card, RG8 has to get out .. with a player like De Jong on the pitch, things could get ugly .. and English refs do not joke .. especially not Clattenburg

farhan

milan dominated we won free kick … arda score… garcia miss….

jeronamo

We only fell back at one nil for reasons unknown but we’re in full control of this game. As long as we don’t site back then this should continue

Will

@PISERAKOS, we started dominating the match but Milan started to pressure and we struggled for probably 25-30 minutes when they scored. Their pressure stopped when Arda scored and we played better since the our second goal.

They will probably return marking strongly but will probably get tired soon.

There’s an App called “Sofascore” that helps me a lot when I’m not on TV.

Will

Taarabt out, Robinho in.

farhan

not goood

Will

47′ Almost our 3rd goal. Very good counter attack and Gabi to the post.

jeronamo

so close by Gabi

farhan

missss gabi…

piserakos

@will… Thank you a lot… Now i returned home and i watch it, i don’t have a phone 😛

jeronamo

i am interested to see how simione will use our subs today

jeronamo

Ok subs??????

jeronamo

Why didn’t Costa shoot?

farhan

again simeone not using subs

jeronamo

RG8!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Brad

RG8 then he gets subbed out

AndersAT

Raul Garcia… I love that guy. A true warrior and a true Atleticoplayer

farhan

sosa in

Brad

arda out, cebolla in

jeronamo

Well he’s using our subs… I can definitely understand the changes so far also… Excellent Simione

Brad

and now it’s time to make muntari eat his words

jeronamo

Ahhh there’s our boy Muntari

Will

Juan Pablo Sorín has just said to a Brazilian TV broadcasting this match that: “you may find clubs with better players, with bigger budgets but you will not find any club that wants so badly to win like this Atlético de Madrid, that plays with such passion. You won’t find this in Europe now.”

Brad

and diego in for an exhausted looking koke

jeronamo

Control time… THIS IS ATLETICO MADRID!

farhan

whyyy simeone not using villa in ucl…??????

Brad

GOAL DIEGO COSTA!

jeronamo

COSTA!!!!!!!!!!!! Thats why you should shoot

farhan

aupa atleti…. wanna see muntari face

Chewie

Have you seen Sosa’s pass?! This game is unbelievable, we could’ve scored 5-7 goals easily. Wow!

And the way Diego has Come on and played as well…. I can’t stop applauding

farhan

actually an busy on searching muntari…. wanna seee his face

jeronamo

I told my friend that supports Barca after the first leg with Milan that Atleti is gonna win with about 4 and he agreed… We conceded but 4-1 is excellent

pantic#10

again a great match by our subs.
Sosa, Cebolla and Diego!
so happy!!
I’m soooo happy!
Thanx Cholo, Thanx guys.

Chewie

The subs were perfect, Simeone is obviously reading our comments.

pantic#10

oh and i have no words to describe RG8…a giant. a real Atleti hero.

marcelo

Thought we were gonna score the 5th when Costa had Diego free in the centre. Fuck that. WHAT A GAME! UP MUNTARI’S ARSE. Proper big team performance from us. Aupa Atleti :’)

Chewie

RG8 is like a steel pike – always ready to strike =)

jeronamo

Lol @ Chewie, maybe he is reading… All of our players were excellent

piserakos

What a game!! I feel so sad i lost some minutes!! We were fantastic! One of the best performances of Diego Costa!!! Well done Beast of Manzanarez!!
Muntari my boy??? What’s up??? Maybe for are not much eh??? Bring us Bayern now!!!! 😛
By the way when Mario injured if i realised well Essien felt on him when he was down and i heard ‘mono mono’ from our fans, UEFA allready has us on the black list with things like this we make our place worst. Hahahaha we sang courtois’ name and after that… Salta salta pequeno caguro!!! hahahaha watch it at youtube if you have miss it!!
Sosa helped a lot at those 10 minutes he played!

jeronamo

@Piserakos our boy Muntari is busy eating humble pie… I’m sick of the racism tho, we need our players pr manager or both to at least say something about it

Ahmad Hossainy

if Raul Garcia was a Real Madrid or a Barcelona player, he would have secured his place with La Roja long time ago .. but who needs La Roja shirt when he is wearing the rojiblanco one
it’s their loss .. not his

and if Milan lost 5-1 on agg. against the weakest team among the 8 group winners, I wonder how many would they lose against the strongest one ?! #AskMuntari

jeronamo

Hahahah. How does it feel losing 5-1 on agg. to the weakest team in pot 1? #AskMuntari

Dircil

So we’re going to face Bayern in the next round, arent we? I prefer PSG to Bayern man, they are overwhelming for us!

Amr Habibi

we face bayern next round ? is this certain ?

piserakos

No No!!!! We don’t face Bayern!! There is a draw at next round!

EC

Wonderful performance from the team tonight. Great tactics by Simione and also good use of subs. We could’ve scored more goals and Costa could’ve had one or two more if he took on more shots.

Everyone played there part well, a few times M. Suarez seemed to drop below par but apart from that everything was perfect.

jeronamo

And why would we fear bayern even if we were to draw them next again???? For heavens sake we play against Barca and Real every season, why should we fear Bayern?

Ash

I think it would be interesting for us to face Bayern in the final. And I believe firmly that our men would fight till the very end for a win, because that means not only about present glory, but an end to that curse placed on us since 1974…

Milan got raped 😀
But in the quaters, I would love if we play Dortmund or Olympiakos/United
I mean united/olympiakos, we would murder them
and dortmund, well, they aren’t in the best form atm and both dortmund and us use a similar style of football, it would be an interesting matchup indeed.

Dircil

@Jeronamo: according to Maslow’s hierarchy of need, the way u think about Atletico now is at the very top =)))))))))))))))). Mine is at the middle though cus I think about Atletico facing less tough team in the next round in the way that if we win we gonna gain more money!!!!!

jeronamo

@Diricil ahhhh i get you…. in that case… bring on the sides we’d have an easier time against

kris

WHOA!! Such a win, I wasn’t expecting, even though I knew we would still be able to do this. I thought Milan would drop deep and only hit on counters and try to not let us score at all, but it seems that…. well,,,, you know.. Unbelievable win against such a historic club!! Great work guys!! Now, I am going to go watch the replay of this match to see how great we were. And Muntari, in your face,, ya cunt!! Forza Atleti siempre!

jeronamo

@Kris lmao… I think you’ll e more than satisfied after seeing the way we won to go with the result

Ali

Bayern is not the team they were last season! Arsenal can only blame themselves for not qualifying into last eight. Today ribery and robben were below par. I would love to see atletico facing bayern.

starvs

Didn’t really even want to think it before the game because didn’t even want to entertain jinxy thoughts, but I just couldn’t imagine this atleti team, given how good we have been at home all season, losing to this Milan team, it really would have been a massive upset. Think the result proved that…

Ash

Sadly news media in China only cares about Milan even though we are the big winner here. Most sports website runs reports only about how Milan was crushed, how Milan failed, why Milan failed, how pity Kaka was, etc, and simply just nothing about why Atletico has become so strong. Do you know that soccer commentators in China don’t even know most of the team? They would confuse Raul Garcia with Diego Costa, and Sosa with Juanfran, and they even fucking confused Juanfran with Fillipe for Christ’s sake!

piserakos

@ash… this is a little funny to say the truth. With all my respect to your country but China (and Japan) are know for supporting ‘modern’ clubs.. Clubs with much marketing support, such Real and Barca… Those clubs almost every summer do friendlies at Asia, when Atletico ever did a friendly at those countries?? Yesterday we saw a Calderon who looked like a volcano! When we watch Camp Nou or Bernabeu that hot?? Never! They have a stadium full of Japanesse who all time taking fotos… We do actions to promote the club at Asia but we are not like them

Ash

@PISERAKOS I believe that if media in those countries can be at least a bit balanced and fair in promoting information regarding other good clubs like ours, the fans will act much more differently than simply and blindly follow those big clubs. I’d say they are just being “brainwashed” to become big clubs’ followers.

Amr Habibi

Galatasaray / Olympiakos / Dortmund would be good..

EC

Olympiakos > Gala (unlikely they will go through tbh) > Dortmund they are probably the 3 teams I hope we get. Especially the first 1 or 2

piserakos

@ash… they do the same here… The journalist wrote many good thing about us yesterday and the comments were… “you all became atleti now etc”…
Olympiakos would be fantastic, he won 2-0 Manchester at the first game but they don’t have a really good team. United sacks this year and they really underestimated Olympiakos. Even though i’m not sure they will progress. I don’t think Galata has many chances and Dormund is good. They don’t have the team they had last year, it would be an intresting match and i think we will progress, but they don’t have the brand name of bayern, milan, real etc…. I don’t want PSG, they don’t have a brand name to make our promotion big and they have a great team

Imran

Feels so good to see people praising Atleti. I remember how inconsistent we used to be and now we’re one if the top teams in europe. Fantastico de Madrid 🙂
And btw special hi to FARHAN my Subcontinent fella 😉

Ali

Subcontinent? You mean you’re from pakistan then I’m your country men! @imran

Imran

@ali awesome 🙂

Ali

Did any one watch sevilla vs betis? Baptistao was amazing scoring one goal and provide assist for another. He’s immense talent 5 times better then overhyped balotelli! @amhed

piserakos

@ali…. i didn’t watched it. I was watching Juve-Fiorentina. I’m happy to read those things… Leo is really good and game by game he gets betters… I believed i him when he was at Rayo and if he keep getting better he can be one of our best players

Dircil

is there any news about our chance of acquiring Rakitic. This man is a beast man. It’s good if we can get him any at price around 15 million!!!

farhan

@imran… hi….

farhan

there is a unofficial atleti account on twitter which says that villa may join valencia next season… i know this not going to happen but
.. just wanted to know your view on this …

Ahmad Hossainy

Ali, Imran & Farhan :
You are one of the most beautiful things on this website,
For Indians & Pakistanis, football is not a very popular sport, it’s way behind Cricket, Volleyball & Badminton
I knew Indians & Pakistanis closely in the 12 years I lived in Saudi Arabia, I had many neighbours and friends of them, and despite living in a country that football is very popular they stuck to their own sports and they built their own volleyball/badminton and cricket fields
I watched them playing cricket several times but I didn’t understand anything 🙂
So when an Indian or Pakistani becomes not just a football fan but an Atleti fan is simply amazing .. and a little strange !

I didn’t watch “Derbi Sevillano” last night, but I did see Leo’s goal .. what a great header
just when I started to worry about his lack of goals : 2 beautiful headers in 5 days

@Dircil : I always wanted Rakitic to be with us, but if we can sign another player as good as him or at least close to him but for free, we will absolutely go for the free one, and that free one could be Jeremy Menez
The Spanish media have been talking about Atleti interest of him, and some even talked about negotiations
The French winger is out of contract next summer and he wants to leave P$G because he is seeking more playing minutes
so if he really is after football and if he could agree to cut his big salary, I think he will wear the red and white shirt next season

Yeah .. maybe Rakitic is better than him, but if the reports are true that Chelsea will agree to sell Courtios for 30 million, I believe we can not afford to pay another 15-20 million for Rakitic
and even if we could afford that, we don’t know if LFP would allow us
they could put a spending-ceiling for us just like they did last season, as they are trying to reduce the debts of La Liga clubs, although they forgot to apply that decision on Real & Barca who both have huge debts .. but they also have big immunity !!

farhan

@ahmad hehehehe….thanx

piserakos

@ahmad… About Menéz staff. He probably will join us on free… According to reports Cebolla will get sold and we will bring Menéz on his place on free, he is better than Cebolla and we will get some mone. Also according to reports Rakitíc will also come, we have allready agree with him and Sevilla with 15 (about) millions. We will bring them probably boths and also Correa who will stay on loan at Argentina. Those who will get sold will be Adrian and Cebolla. Also the latter new of the goalkeeper staff. Chelsea probably won’t sell Courtois, at least not cheap. They say that they will call him to renew his contract, if he accepts he will come at Atleti on loan, if not probably he will spend his time on the bench. If we won’t get Courtois the other options are. 1) Reina, Liverpool want 4-5 million for him and we can give them. 2) Navas, his contract ends next season, Atleti want to take him for 3-4 millions.

Ali

@ahmed I love football because I lived in Saudi Arabia for 13 years. Normally I don’t understand cricket either. But in big cities of pakistan like karachi and Lahore football is played more then cricket. And also government is trying to promote football in the country.

Ali

@ahmed yeah that’s a bit strange and because majority of Pakistanis football fans support barcelona and man utd. @piserakos we would love to see rakitic playing for us and we don’t need menez if valbuena joins us. And also we need a good defensive midfielder someone like axel witsel.

kris

I don’t see the need of another good defensive midfielder when we already have Guilavogui and Saul, who are well enough replacements for Mario and Gabi after Tiago leaves… If we are going to be signing Alex Witsel, it’ll most likely be through Jorge fooking Mendes too, so I wouldn’t want that.. Jeremy Menez is pretty good but, another name which will probably be through the Doyen Group. I am praying if we can lure Courtois, then there’s no money used of Mendes, he will sell him for 70 million two years later,, and this I think we all know…. Not that that’s bad, but we shouldn’t remain a selling club and Mendes shouldn’t be doing the dealings for Atleti,, from which he receives a LOT of money..

Ali

And reports also claim that atletico have made carlos vela as their top transfer target. And our president also praised him.

piserakos

@kris.. No Menez isn’t a Doyen Sport deal. He will join us on free. We will try to bring Valbuena and if he can come with no many money we will bring him. Witsel according to pappers will be a part of Azerbajan deal. They want to bring players at Atleti, Witsel and Luis Suarez are the first targets, but it won’t be easy. About Courtois staff, i don’t really know if i would like to give 30 million for him. 30 million for any GK are a lot of money. Anyway if we can give those money then we will have one of the best ever GK for 15 more years, that’s something really good! If not, Navas would be my perfect man

Kris

Oh,, thanks for clearing that up Piserakos!! In that case we should complete the deal before the summer transfer window before anybody else goes for him… One of Liverpool or Arsenal will try to sign him for sure.. @ali, I would rather have Griezmann than Vela but what Vela will bring to Atleti is the Mexicans and that will be good for our marketing,,, I’m not sure if he will ever choose to okay for Mexico again though…. Azberaijaan seems really into Atleti then, if they want players like Luis Suarez and Witsel into the team. That’d be fascinating, really.

Ahmad Hossainy

@Kris : Piserakos is right, Jeremy Menez is not one of Doyen’s agents
They only have 21 players, listed in their official website :

As you can see, there are 4 of our former and current players in that list :
Falcao, Guilavogui, Rubén Pérez & Reyes

Also Negredo who we tried to sign last summer is in that list,
but the good thing is : Jeremy Menez is not there

And I didn’t totally understand what you said about Courtios
Did mean that we will buy him for 30 million then sell him after a couple of years for 70 million ?!
If that is what you meant then I disagree with you
Why would any club bother to make all these efforts and spend all that money to buy a player just to sell him again after 2 or 3 years ?!
To make a profit of 40 million ?!
Well, if we kept him we can gain that same number every single season by reaching at least UCL quarter-finals with the help of his crucial saves

Do you remember with how much did we sell De Gea ?! .. 25 million
Now why would any club which sold a GK few years ago with 25 m buy another one with 30 m unless they intend to keep him for a very long time

Atletico have changed, we are not a seller club anymore
and the credit of that is not for Gil or Cerezo .. it’s only for one man : Simeone

Last Thing :
last summer I read many times in many different sources that FIFA rules prevents a player to play on loan for the same club more than 3 seasons
and they said that if Courtios stayed at Atleti for 2013-14 season, it will be his last one, then Atleti will have either to buy him or say goodbye

and now some people are talking about another loan, not talking about some of your comments, but I also read that in some newspapers

as far as I know, Courtois can not play for Atleti on loan next season
so we have to buy him or find another GK

piserakos

@ahmad… I’ve read the same the FIFA rules prevents a player to play on loan at the same club for more than 2 seasons… Both Chealsea and Atletico said that there is no such a rule… Cerezo the same told it! So probably that will be the truth… So yes maybe we can get him on loan next season.
@kris… I really hope it is truth and they will get into the team a lot… Before 1-2 weeks i read that there was a meeting between the ambassador of Azerbajan and Atetico’s officers and they desided Azerbajan will give money to Atletico to bring some great players in order to promote their country…
Guys do you have a facebook?

Andres (Lolaya)

I really hope Atletico doesn’t even go near Suarez. Suarez would bring down the team, I just sense it the same way I sense how he would if he was signed by Real.

kris

I was probably exaggerating when I said buy for 30 and sell for 70 but then, I meant like, look at the Falcao situation in which we bought him for 40 million and sold him after a couple of seasons for 60 million (plus most likely more). But, that’s not the point, because I was actually stating we shouldn’t ever do that again and instead keep him for many many years if we actually buy him.
@piserakos, no, Facebook makes me mad. lol. Deactivated my account two years ago and haven’t tried logging in since.

Ahmad Hossainy

Kris, let’s never forget that Falcao case was unique, we only owned 50% of his contract, may be less, while the rest was owned by Doyen .. so we didn’t really have a choice
and according to that, we only received 30 million or less from the 60 m paid by Monaco

Andres, I never bought even for a second the rumors of signing Suarez
the man is paid more than 10 million/season by Liverpool, while our highest salary is probably not more than 5 million
yes, maybe we can pay 10 m for just one player, but Simeone is against that principle
he refuses to be there a big difference in the salaries between the players

not to mention his very big price, and what some reports said that we will sell Costa and by Suarez with his money is ridiculous
maybe it makes some sense if we want to have them both, but why in the hell would we sell a world class striker just to buy another one at the same level ?!
this is just media rubbish

piserakos

@ahmad… about Suarez staff…. They say that he would come at the place of Villa. I also don’t believe it for the same reason. It’s not only the 40-50 millions we would give for him at Liverpool but his huge salary, we will never pay that money for a player. It would be a big injustice for the others. The only reason i think that would go on is to make a weird thing with Azebajan. If you don’t know the taxes are 100% at Spain. If we give 10mil t him we should give 10 more at taxes. So maybe if there is any way to make a deal with Azerbajan and they play their salary and there are no taxes then yes. I highly doubt that we can do something like this